petre.ispirescu

19yo left back from Valencia. One of Spain's top prospects. A regular for Valencia this season. Played 27 and assisted 4 goals. Scored one. He is on todays AS frontpage. Has three years left on his contract with a buy-out clause set at £13m. Valencia want him to sign a new contract and increase the buy-out clause. He refused them and told he will not sign a new contract. AS say he has become Real Madrid's next target, but Chelsea and City are already in talks with him and ready to trigger the release clause.

Yeah, third party ownership... same thing that has denied Thiago a transfer here last summer. Would have been a great adition to the squad. Such a shame.

That BBC interview pretty much confirmed that he's not going to sign a new contract and wants Liverpool to back the fuck off and let him challenge for trophies somewhere else. 99 out of 100 players would sign that contract in a blink, but that's not the case here. My guess is that he's already struck a deal with someone. Chelsea and City are in need of boosting English quota and ready to pay good money, so it'll be interesting to see what happens this summer. Really hope he ends up here.

Hope so.

Finally Jose has realised that his coaching skills in the final third are somehow limited and modern football is more than speculating your enemy's weaknesses. Exactly what Sir Alex did when he brought Meulensteen to the team. Bring back GF and let him work his magic.

I believe there must be a reason why no one has ever heard of him until one year ago. To me he looks like an average player, that type of industrial midfielder that can sit in front of the back four and do the dirty job. And nothing more. Watched Belgium throughout this Qualifiers and some Roma games and he looks so rudimental. Took a couple of shots last night that would have scared even the bravest airline pilot. Probably a decent signing for Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham, but for Chelsea it would only be a waste of space. And we already have that in Mikel. Teams like Chelsea, Barcelona, Bayern, Real Madrid, they need smart defensive midfielders that can bring something else to the game, too, not only some hard tackles and workrate. You want a back-up for Matic? Good, then look after a player similar to him. Nainggolan is a different type of player and definitely not Chelsea quality.

Zenit payed as much as 65m for Hulk.

31m for a player with only one year left in his contract. And who is also going to rot on the bench because Carvajal is miles ahead of him in terms of quality. Typical Real Madrid. It probably has to do something with Florentino Perez's business in Portugal/Brazil.

MAAAAAAAAAAAAATIC, MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATIC, MAAAAAAAAAAAAATIC It's also the same end he scored that goal against Porto for which he was nominated for Puskas Award

Should a league would only last for two weeks, then Sturridge and Giuseppe Rossi would definitely be Europe's deadliest duo

Still, Koke was the one to play that beautiful through ball to Morata for the goal. Chelsea already have a player with the characteristics of Iniesta/David Silva and that is Cesc. Ideally it would be to pair him with someone like Koke. He is everything you want from a box-to-box midfielder and he is the type of player Oscar was supposed to be. Or at least what Chelsea was expecting him to be. He's got vision, a monster workrate, he's a good tackler and he is brilliant in the final third. Young, too. He's just turned 23. He would not only free Cesc a bit from his defensive duties, but he'd also bring something extra rather than just pure workrate and pressing skills like Oscar. Champions League last season Champions League this season He is more than just an industrial type of midfielder. Would be a dream signing for me.

Boooooooooo !!!

Lithuania's GK and CF both play in the Romanian league. I mean, if England can't beat the crap out of that lot... then I don't know.

Did he learn how to say "hello" in Italian after two years there? Or is it "una emocion too big" for him to start learning the language?

Did you watch Colombia's friendly against Bahrein? What about Cuadrado's performance?

One of those rare chances to see him in action. Oscar and Willian start, too. Brazil XI vs. France: Jefferson; Danilo, Thiago Silva, Miranda, Filipe Luís; Luiz Gustavo, Elias; Willian, Oscar, Firmino, Neymar.

Doubt there will be a lot of hands raised.

Arsenal's Mesut Ozil 'convinced' he can lift prestigious Ballon d'Or despite criticism. http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11670/9775595/arsenals-mesut-ozil-convinced-he-can-lift-prestigious-ballon-dor-despite-criticism :confused: He says that "he would like to hold the Ballon d'Or in his hands in the next few years" so I guess he won't have any problems taking a selfie with Hazard's trophy.

LOL Skrtel just posted a photo of him, Brenton and Slippy G on Instagram

Southampton and now Tottenham. There must be a reason why Simeone doesn't trust him and no big team is interested in his signature. Europa League level.

I believe they are free to spend up to 200, let's say 250m in this summer, so matching Madrid's asking price will not be a problem. As I said, United are desperate enough, and naive, to bow down to Florentino's wishes.

Hilarious

He is perfectly suited for PL and a must buy for the right price. His value has gone downhill for sure and in normal circumstances he can't go for more than 55-60m. You would have to overpay big time and frankly he is not a 80-85m player. One of my favourite wingers atm, but definitely not worth that money. I reckon he'd choose Chelsea over any other English team atm. The problem is that I can't see Chelsea going over the 60m mark. Going into a bidding war with United would only be a waste of precious time in the market because you know they are desperate enough to overpay for him. My guess is that Florentino Perez will rob United of at least 85m.

That's brilliant for Dom. Future looks bright for him.